Gourmet food

Italian wines for your Christmas dinner

22/12/2016

One of the biggest holidays of the year is on its way! In Italy, Christmastime is family time, which means that there is a lot of eating and drinking involved. We’re taking this grand opportunity to suggest the best wines to pair with some of our most traditional holiday dishes.

Although every Italian region has its food specialties, most Italians traditionally start Christmas dinner out with a nice bowl of soup. It’s a delicate starter dish that pairs well with a good floral scented white wine, such as Falanghina.

For the next course, Northerners tend to serve capon broth with handmade tortellini or ravioli, which is perfect with a dry and sweet white wine, such as Trebbiano di Romagna DOC. In central and southern Italy, the main course is usually a stuffed pasta with a meat sauce. Whether semolina or egg pasta is used varies from region to region; for example, in Puglia they make orecchiette, while in the Marche they make maccheroni and in Emilia Romagna they make tagliatelle. The type of wine that one would choose for any of those pasta dishes would be persistent enough to match the richness of any of the meat sauces used to adorn those wonderful pastas.

Pasta is then followed by either some sort of meat or fish dish. Pork or pig’s trotter (zampone) with lentils is a common choice for many. While meat is more commonly served in the North, fish (such as cod or eel) is often served in the South. Red wines with spicy and fruity tones pair well with meat; and a balanced white wines pair well with fish.

At the end of the dinner, the most loved and popular holiday treats are placed on the table: panettone, pandoro, white nougat candies, nuts, chocolates and more… There is no better way to wash down such gluttonous delights than with a glass of sweet Spumante or with a glass of liquor.